hi, my name is loretta and my beautiful cavie is Louis. he is the most lovable, loyal friend and is such a character, but this week we had to bring him to the vet as he was unwell and the vet delivered the awful news that he has a heart murmur. He had xray and blood tests on Wed and his heart is enlarged on the right hand side with fluid build up in the lungs. He has been prescribed heart medication and diuretic and will take them for the rest of his life. He will be five in August. The vet has confirmed that it is a common defect with cavaliers but I hope you can enlighten me as to what I can do to make his life more comfortable with the hope of having Louis around for a long time to come.X

meljoy

10th April 2011, 12:20 AM

Welcome to the board

Sorry to hear about Louis, you'll find lots of info and support here. Hopefully he'll improve now he's on the right medication.:flwr:

Wagtails

14th April 2011, 03:47 PM

Lots of us on this board have dogs with heart murmurs and congestive heart failure. It is always a shock when you first get the diagnosis, but Louis's medication should help him a lot.

Make sure to keep seeing the vet until you are happy with his pills as there are several different things he could take and adjustments can be made to dosages too.

If you look in the SM and MVD forum here, you will find lots of threads with information about both specific questions and also how to cope in general
http://www.cavaliertalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?56-SM-and-MVD-cavaliers-forum

Broadly speaking, if you take sensible precautions with diet, keep Louis's weight down, don't let him get too hot, exercise him gently and don't treat him as an invalid, then, with luck, you should have many happy years to come yet.

The dogs themselves don't know they are ill, and providing you follow your vet's advice and adapt his management to circumstances as they change, then I think you will be surprised how well he will adapt too.

Good luck and do let us know how he gets on. It would be lovely to see a photo of him - what colour is he?

Love my Cavaliers

14th April 2011, 04:30 PM

Hi and welcome to you and Louis. Probably the best thing you can do for Louis is to get him under the care of a cardiologist instead of your vet. Cardiologists are specialists and particularly since your vet said his heart is enlarged with fluid build up in his lungs, I would want him to be seen by a cardiologist right away. Even though your vet may be very good, vets are specialists in general medicine and are just not equipped to handle the subtleties and intricacies of the heart. There is more testing that they will probably do to determine the exact extent of his MVD.

Wagtails has given you some great practical advice and like she said there are many of us who have dogs with murmurs. My Oz has a murmur but doesn't require medication yet. He was diagnosed at 4 months of age and sees the cardiologist once a year and one of these times I'm sure I'll get the bad news that he needs medication.

Please let us know how you and Louis are doing and how is responds to his meds. It is a shocking diagnosis.

mommytoClaire

15th April 2011, 01:30 AM

Welcome to Cavalier Talk. I'm so sorry to hear about Louis. This is a wonderful group of folks who I know will help you through this, and give you a lot of great information.

Looking forward to getting to know you and hearing more about Louis.

Cindy and Claire

Jasper and Holly

15th April 2011, 03:33 AM

Welcome. Sorry to hear about Louis. You will find a lot of help and information on this site.